DOVER-FOXCROFT — With two lively sports activities amenities in Dover-Foxcroft, the city might use a resort. That’s why a gaggle of Piscataquis County residents and leaders are utilizing federal funds to determine a location and work out what it could take to construct one within the southern a part of the county.
DOVER-FOXCROFT — With two lively sports activities amenities in Dover-Foxcroft, the city might use a resort. That’s why a gaggle of Piscataquis County residents and leaders are utilizing federal funds to determine a location and work out what it could take to construct one within the southern a part of the county.
The Piscataquis County Financial Growth Council obtained a $500,000 Brownfields Evaluation grant from america Environmental Safety Company final Might. It’s utilizing the cash on 4 initiatives and asking cities, nonprofits and others to submit extra concepts.
The cash is designed to wash up properties the place redevelopment is sophisticated by hazardous substances, pollution or contaminants — known as brownfields websites — and have communities reinvest in them. It will increase native tax bases, results in job progress, takes growth strain off of undeveloped, open land and protects the setting, in response to the EPA.
Piscataquis County’s financial group, often known as PCEDC, can use $18,000 of these funds on a feasibility examine for a resort as a result of three of the 5 Dover-Foxcroft places being thought-about are brownfields websites, Government Director Angela Arno stated. The grant permits market research and future website planning, she stated.
A gaggle of space residents has met intermittently for a minimum of 5 years to debate constructing a resort in or close to Dover-Foxcroft, stated Richard Swett, one in every of a number of folks concerned within the mission who has ties to Foxcroft Academy, though the varsity shouldn’t be concerned. This step ahead gives a glimpse into what Piscatquis County’s future could possibly be. Advocates say it might additionally deliver a lift to the native financial system.
The city’s two newer sports activities amenities, the Piscatquis County Ice Enviornment and the Jim Robinson Area Home, obtain requests to host tournaments, however they’re restricted as a result of there isn’t a spot with sufficient rooms to host groups and households, Arno stated.
“With a resort within the area, households are going to eat, store and get gasoline regionally,” she stated. “We’re taking a look at this as a whole financial growth mission.”
A resort would additionally supply Mainers and out-of-state guests who come to entry snowmobile and ATV trails, amongst different leisure actions, a spot to remain moreover Greenville, Arno stated. And it could supply the dad and mom of worldwide college students attending Foxcroft Academy a spot to remain in the event that they select to go to.
Some residents have expressed curiosity in a spacious venue for conferences and occasions similar to weddings and showers, she famous.
Whereas Dover-Foxcroft has some lodging, together with The Mill Inn and the Bear’s Den Restaurant, Motel & Tavern, it doesn’t have a resort with a lot of rooms.
Pinnacle Advisory Group, which has an workplace in Boston, Massachusetts, is main the feasibility examine. These concerned with the mission needed a corporation with a recent perspective to take a look at the mission and supply suggestions on what could be possible, Arno stated.
She expects the examine to finish in June. The PCEDC will then launch it to the general public and the residents group behind the mission. They will use it as an asset and work with buyers or potential hoteliers, and the PCEDC could be supportive, she stated.
“Everyone form of has the sense that this might be a superb factor, however we have to again it with some information and data,” stated Peter Sherr of TRC Firms, Inc., an environmental guide, in a current assembly concerning the brownfields funding.
The PCEDC can use its grant on Section I and II environmental assessments, which assist communities perceive how a website was used and potential threats to folks and the setting, and cleanup planning.
To start precise cleanup, the group would want to faucet into its Brownfields Revolving Mortgage Fund for grants to nonprofits and municipalities or low-interest loans to for-profit corporations, Arno stated.
The group was awarded $1.5 million within the revolving mortgage fund in 2012 and has about $600,000 remaining, she stated.
The $500,000 evaluation grant is getting used on three different initiatives, together with the Brown Mills constructing in Dover-Foxcroft, the place an evaluation was carried out in 2016 and might be up to date.
The previous woolen mill and tannery is on the market, and a few county and state officers wish to see it redeveloped to sort out Maine’s lack of inexpensive housing. This grant helps with planning the constructing’s future use, which might embrace mixed-use areas like different revamped mills across the state, together with one in downtown Dover-Foxcroft.
Brownfields funding was used to cowl the environmental cleanup at Mayo Mill, which is now flats, workplace area, a boutique inn and cafe.
The funding may even tackle the Abol Bridge Campground in an unorganized territory in Piscataquis County. The mission is to take away an expired gas tank, Arno stated.
An environmental evaluation was accomplished on the redemption middle in Dover-Foxcroft, which is being reviewed by the EPA and Maine Division of Environmental Safety.
There may be extra funding obtainable, and the PCEDC is raring to spend it, Arno stated. The group obtained a $200,000 evaluation grant that it used at eight brownfields websites from 2009 to 2011. One other $400,000 turned obtainable in 2016 and was used to evaluate 11 websites.
The PCEDC has inspired entities to use on its web site to entry the funding. Requests have are available in for initiatives in Greenville, Guilford and Milo.
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